Andrew North & The Rangers

Playing upbeat piano-rock with a healthy shot of jazz and swing is what makes Andrew North and The Rangers tick. Their debut album Phosphorescent Snack toucches base with the jam band scene, where anything goes provided the players have mastered their instruments and left their egos back home in order to listen and collaborate. By stretching out and letting the music flow the offkilter lyrics make sense as they become part of the mood and the vibe. Exhibit A Dig Deep: "Distracted, scattered, lost in thought // You think you are what you are not // The sea that swims, unclog the drain // Arrange the neurons, make a brain".

The band really gels when they play instrumentals, conjuring up an evening in a late night jazz club with Down the Pipes and Epiphone. With each band member pitching in with his peculiar set of musical influences Phosphorescent Snack offers a tight but loose set of tracks that celebrate the art of connecting as musicians, exploring old and new paths of combining improvisation and composed parts. Recommended if you like Phish and its offshoot, the Trey Anastasio Band.

Andrew North and The Rangers:
Andrew North: keyboards, vocals
Rob O'Brie: saxophone, Roland Aerophone
Chip Spangler: bass, vocals
Dale Grant: drums, vocals - Here Comes the Flood

For Andrew North, the stage and the studio are two distinct places, with the latter a place for adventure. Phosphorescent Snack, the debut album from North and his band the Rangers, is a multi-tracked gem, with elements of funk, soulful pop and progressive jazz. It's Steely Dan meets Frank Zappa at a 1969 Chicago Transit Authority listening party.

"Electrostatic Chills" expresses a solid groove intention, while the instrumental "Epiphone" showcases the four band members' prowess: North on keys, drummer Dale Grant, bass player Chip Spangler and horn wizard Rob O'Brien. That the song is missing the instrument it's named after is not lost on North.

"Yeah, there's no guitar on the album, which has kind of become a point of pride for us," he said in a recent interview. Other standouts include "Down the Pipes," with its echoes of Dixieland jazz, the can-do anthem "Dig Deep" and "Aditi," the latter sounding like an unmistakable nod to a certain Vermont jam band.

"It's hard to admit, because when we say we're Phish-influenced, the reaction can go either way," North agreed. "But there's no question I've soaked up so much of that over the decades, and it comes across in what I do. ... I've stopped trying to downplay it."

The connection is understandable; North moved from Burlington, Vermont, to Concord five years ago, bringing the energy of his first home along with him. Andrew North & the Rangers is a multigenerational ensemble; Grant has played drums for close to five decades, including sessions with members of Yes, Survivor and Cheap Trick, while the younger Spangler's resume includes work in far-away places like Alaska.

Like many bands, the quartet planned to complete its debut disc in 2020, but when the pandemic ended live shows, time was used to polish it a bit more. O'Brien, who plays an electronic Roland Aerophone he affectionately calls Dustbuster that can emit a multitude of sounds, opened his laptop and created walls of horns that would please Earth, Wind & Fire.

"Covid-19 gave us a good chance to sit down and work the tracks up with some overdubbing," North said, "and obviously, if you let Rob loose with a chance to take more than one pass at a song, he'll take full
advantage."

North and his mates marked the record's release with an August show at Area 23, a Concord haven for original bands like theirs.

They'll appear at Newmarket's venerable Stone Church on Sept. 2 "I was in a jam band in like 2006, and we were dying to get a gig at Stone Church," North said, "and they never gave us the time of day…. so I may be irrationally excited about that one."

On Sept. 4 they'll play a late set at the Keene Music Festival, a massive outdoor showcase of regional bands on multiple stages. - The Hippo

Where do we look for good music? We mean “authentic, for the love of sharing art with the world” kind of good music. It’s rarely on the radio anymore. Streaming services can help give musicians bigger platforms, sure. But passion, talent and fun? It feels harder and harder to come by these days. Enter Andrew North and the Rangers.

If you want that real good music, go take a trip to the local dive bar and catch a cool set. Or maybe meet a new local talent at a coffee shop open mic night. If you’re lucky, you just might bump into this group.

Good music where you least expect it.

With a love of music, and a sense of humor that masks itself behind seriously good blends of jazz and rock, Andrew North and the Rangers have released one of the most fun underground records of the year in Phosphorescent Snack.

The band hails from Concord, New Hampshire and is filled with four small town friends who possess nothing outwardly in common. Different ages, hometowns, and even music backgrounds. When these four artists connected while searching for real good music at a local joint, they decided to join forces to create some of their own.

This record, which is their first widely available album, is filled with jams spanning 12 songs and over one hour in length. It’s nice, but it doesn’t cut as deep as it could. However, it’s the originality blended with likeable inspirations that keep it focused.

When we think jam bands, it’s classics like Grateful Dead and Dave Matthews. Have you ever heard a jam band use saxophone and keys in rotating fashion like a revolving door while still feeling like rock and blues? This is not just a good jazzy type group, its a band that leaves few elements untouched.

Phosphorescent Snack‘s first tune is called “Down the Pipes” and it opens like a concert which brings a sense of excitement. Slow piano touching all the high and low tones rattle off into catchy drums that sound like the curtain raiser to a real classic rock show. You may be surprised when horns, keys and bass greet you instead of guitar. It’s a catchy foot tapper but seems a touch too familiar like a song from a coffee shop soundtrack. In the end, it is still solid.

Listen to Phosphorescent Snack on Spotify:

Then there’s the tracks that surprise you with electronic fusions like “Chicken in the Backyard.” We are not exactly sure why Andrew North and the Rangers are talking bout fowl, but the lyrics are interesting to say the least. The track really does pick up with a cowbell and a sax solo that feels like riding a slip and slide down a rainbow. The layers all meet up and the drums carry into a slow bass riff. When the horns come back you are so glad because you never wanted them to leave. Keyboards also make this track feel like a classic song to feel in your soul. Like others on the album, it makes you want to dance.

The production is also a standout on this record. “11 at 11” sounds like Emerson Lake and Palmer met Boston, and that is hard to pull off without the proper equipment. As the band recently told us here at Beyond the Stage Magazine, they were glad to finally put these tracks together professionally.

“As soon as we could scrape together decent recording gear we started tracking this album in our drummer’s garage,” they said. “It was incredible to hear the full studio arrangements take shape after playing these songs out live for years. Tank Recording Studio in Vermont did such an outstanding job with the mix and master and really took the project to the next level. We are just blown away by the results and so happy for our fans to hear it!”

The result is a satisfying magic show of sound as exemplified on “Smoke and Mirrors,” which really shows that these guys know how to play music, really really well.

Andrew North and the Rangers may not play the most appealing music that mass audiences want. That’s fine though. The people who really appreciate strong talent will. These are the bands you see around town. They are inviting, and they are good. Not only that, but they have fun lyrics that don’t try to be incredibly serious. Sometimes that’s okay in good music, because its clear the emphasis here is on their instrumentation.

It’s a sound so familiar but original at the same time. That makes it easy to listen to no matter who you are. So go down to your local dive, get a pint, sit back and relax. It’s a good spot to hear real good music.

Andrew North and the Rangers Phosphorescent Snack – 7/10 - Beyond the Stage Magazine

New Hampshire-based jammers Andrew North & The Rangers today released their debut full-length LP, Phosphorescent Snack. The 12-song release showcases the band’s genre-bending style and whimsical sense of humor.

“This album has been a long time coming,” North stated. “I’m so excited about the music that we’ve been making together and I think our fans, old and new, are going to love it.”

Phosphorescent Snack is available now on all streaming outlets, and features Andrew North (keys and vocals), Dale Grant (drums and vocals), Chip Spangler (bass and vocals), and Rob O’Brien (brass). The record was mixed and mastered by Tank Studios in Burlington, Vermont.

Andrew North and the Rangers are small-town friends brought together by an adventurous approach to music. The quartet spans different ages, hometowns, and musical backgrounds, but they hit it off quickly at local open-mic nights. Over three years together they have honed their craft, drawing from the technical fireworks of classic rock, the spontaneity of jazz, the light-hearted fun of the jam scene, and even the intricate passages of classical composition.

The album captures the diversity of the band’s styles, from instrumental jazz (“Smoke and Mirrors”) to straight-ahead rock (“Electrostatic Chills”) and funky jams (“Chicken in the Backyard”). It’s off-beat but accessible and fun, and it’s clear that these are serious musicians that don’t take themselves too seriously.

“We made this on our own in a garage,” North said. “We are just having so much fun right now, and that really comes through in the tracks. I took a long time off from making music, and I never thought I would get a band this good together and put out an album like this. It’s just so awesome!” - JamBase

Emerging rock/jazz/jam band Andrew North and the Rangers is back with their new single “Chicken in the Backyard”, which you can stream exclusively via Aesthetic Magazine below.

“I used to have a couple of backyard chickens,” said North. “It was awesome and I always wanted to post pictures about them on Instagram so everyone could see how cool I was. This turned into a song idea that was stuck in my head for a long time. It started out as a commentary on internet culture and the performative nature of social media, but that felt a little “on the nose” for my taste and I had fun stretching the lyrical ideas out until they were just right. This song is whimsical and funky and has become one of our absolute favorites to play as a band. I love that it gives every band member a chance to really shine!”

A sneak peak of their upcoming album Phosphorescent Snack, the group writes songs on their own terms…the only way they know how. With jam band elements, the group brings a vibrant sound that is filled with playful lyricism, smooth harmonies, nostalgic keys and vibrant lead vocals. Adding a little Jazz flavor into the mix, the song will have you moving and grooving within every listen.

The song builds up to a catchy groove and more layered instrumentation, almost as if to gently transport the listener to the full flow of the track. Bright horns add to the uniqueness of the piece as Andrew North and the Rangers bring a good time right into your home.

Andrew North and the Rangers are small-town friends brought together by an adventurous approach to music. The quartet span different ages, hometowns, and musical backgrounds, but they hit it off quickly at local open-mic nights. Over 3 years together they have honed their craft, drawing from the technical fireworks of classic rock, the spontaneity of jazz, the light-hearted fun of the jam scene, and even the intricate passages of classical composition.

Andrew North and the Rangers create a bold vision that will have you coming back for more each time. Their debut album out this July, Phosphorescent Snack, showcases their genre-bending style and whimsical sense of humor. It’s a reminder that amazing things can come from unlikely places. - Aesthetic Magazine

As any fan of jam bands knows, live albums are where it is at for a band to thrive. New Hampshire based sextet Andrew North & The Rangers cherry-picked the best performances of their 2022 shows and put together Thanks for the Warning, Vol 1. They lean more towards than rock on this one and while their studio album was within the idiom of Phish and its offshoot, the Trey Anastasio Band, they are now channeling the sound of early '70s Blood, Sweat & Tears.

With two saxophone players and two drummers in the line-up they have plenty of opportunities to set up call-and-response parts, with Andrew North adding touches on keyboards and bass player Chip Spangler creating an undulating bottom end. Most of the tracks are brand new and they will have their work cut out for them when they try to capture the joy and energy of Fluffy Stranger or 50-50 in a recording studio. Thanks for the Warning, Vol 1 could be the first of a series of carefully curated tracks. Until Vol. 2 arrives, there are four full live shows on their Bandcamp page to tide you over.

Andrew North & The Rangers:
Andrew North: keyboards, vocals
Randy Hunneyman: percussion
Rob O'Brien: saxophone, Roland Aerophone
Jillian Rorke: saxophone
Chip Spangler: bass, vocals
Dale Grant: drums, vocals

Andrew North & The Rangers: Thanks for the Warning, Vol 1
Thanks for the Warning - Vol. 1 is a self-released album. Buy it from their website.

Tracks:
Thing About the Woods
Epiphone
Fluffy Stranger
Infinity Spinning
Chicken in the Backyard
I Want to be a Ranger
Down the Pipes
50-50
Electrostatic Chills
Sneaky Lou - Here Comes the Flood

Lead by Concord, New Hampshire keyboardist, singer, Andrew Grosvenor, Andrew North And The Rangers, after much hard work, became one of the most recognizable names in northern New England jam bands. Grosvenor (pronounced grove -ner, the “s” is silent) and his band mates put together a sound that is at once complex, entertaining, and sometimes goofball comedy. One would have to say Andrew North And The Rangers are a jam band and then some.

“I have a hard time categorizing this stuff,” he said. “I’m a big Phish fan. I come from that jam band end of the world. I’m always looking for that element of spontaneity in music. We’re also not the kind of band that’s going to go into a 20 minutes improvisation off of anything. We all believe in trying to keep decently structured but with room to explore within them.”

Whenever anyone in the music scene describes Andrew North And The Rangers, Phish and Trey Anastasio are usually mentioned as influences. Grosvenor concedes he and his band makes take special inspiration from the Vermont-based Phish

“It’s a huge influence on me. I” ve been a very big Phish fan for more than 20 years, the Rangers leader said. “I’ve been to a bunch of shows. That is kind of my home base music language. There’s a cleverness to the way they integrate classical composition with improvisation with funk music and rock music that I find is really inspiring.”

Like Phish, Andrew North And The Rangers are often pulling musical ideas from a range of different genres and putting things together and seeing what happens. Like Phish, they don’t take themselves all that serious but they’re very serious about musicianship.

To play this kind of complex, experimental mesh, often in odd time signatures, one must be a serious musician without ego problems. There is too much work to be done to be sidetracked with nonsensical behavior. After spending years in bands that got along and bands that didn’t, Grosvenor learned to work things out.

“I’ve been the person causing those ego problems without realizing it and I’ve learned a lot from that experience,” he said. “One thing I’ve learned in this band now that we’ve been together for six years, is that we have very different personalities in the band. We have very different musical influences in the band. It became obvious very early on that if I was going to be so committed to my own personal visions for how things we’re going to go and forced that on everybody else, then the whole thing wasn’t going to work and it was going to fall apart. I learned really fast to work with the group that we had and try to find everybody’s strength and take input and collaborate in the way that made sense for our group.”

Grosvenor composes all all of the music for his and the Rangers’ original songs Yet, everyone else in the band always has an impact on the arrangement, after he brings in his song ideas and outlines. That is how Andrew North And The Rangers put together their debut and so far only released studio effort, Phosphorescent Snack, recorded in Vermont.

“I do most of them,” he said. “I have the leadership role in the band. It’s fairly obvious from the name of the band. I’m happy to be in that leadership position and take that primary role. I try real hard to make sure it’s not about me. I bring most of the songs to the band and bring stuff to the band in a state of ‘Here’s how I think it should go.’ Then we take input and collaborate on where it should go after that. I’ve written the vast bulk of our songs and compositions. As far as arrangements, that tends to be more of a band process.”

One title that stands out from the Rangers’ repertoire is “Chicken In The Backyard,” a song inspired by a real life scenario.

“I tend to get ideas for songs when I’m maybe puttering around the house and doing house projects or when I’m running for exercise,” the band leader said. “I do it without headphones and without listening to anything. I get ideas and snippets of things, which is like the chorus of ‘Chicken In The Backyard’. We had backyard chickens in my house at the time. I take a snippet like that and I’ll mull it over and some will work themselves into songs over time. For me, it’s a fairly intuitive process. I just go with what feels right. It might not make literal sense but somewhere in my brain they’re kicking around. That one in particular is pretty abstract.”

Another crowd pleaser from the debut album is “I Want To Be A Ranger,” which reminds of 1950s youth wishing to join the scouts.

“That one started as a joke,” Grosvenor admitted. “There’s another musician in town. His name is Kyle Klose. He has a band called Holy Fool. It’s really excellent. For whatever reason, he would have a catch phrase. When he would see me around, he would just sing and he would be like “I want to be a ranger.” Grosvenor put his friend on notice that he just might make a song out of that.

“After about six months of that, I wrote it as a joke song. But, everybody liked it and it took on a life of its own,” Grosvenor said.

After playing in Connecticut bands during his college and post college years Grosvenor spent a year hitting New York City venues like the Knitting Factory, The Lions Den, and bars on Long Island. That big city required him to move 30 tickets at $15 a piece for a 30 minute set with eight other bands on a Sunday night in which he had ten minutes to load in and out with all of his gear.

“I learned a lot about how to function as a musician with how fast you have to get on and off stages and how you should treat the other musicians who are performing, being respectful and a good community member,” Grosvenor related.

Reality set in for the then 20 something musician. He had by then found out the hard way how hard the business is. His band went up to Burlington, Vermont for a solid year playing out. Nectar’s and other venues booked them.

“We were in our early 20s and had to start learning how to make a living, because we certainly weren’t as a band.” Eventually, Grosvenor moved to Concord, New Hampshire to become a grown up. After some years, not having music in his life motivated him to find a band here.

“It’s unique here,” he quipped. “It doesn’t work quite like any other place. There’s not many venues. The musicians and venues are all fumbling in the dark as far as putting anything with any structure together. It is what it is.”

New Hampshire, North feels, has some passionate jam band fans looking for that genre. “If you can deliver the goods,” he said, “you’ll get people who come out and they’ll come out again and again because they know each show’s going to be different.” Demographics in central New Hampshire are tough, without enough college students. Messaging helps, letting people know you’re there. “This music is happening and it’s exciting and you should come see it,” he said.

Outdoor festivals work best fo his Andrew North And The Rangers outfit than being under a roof inside a building. All six band members love playing outside but had really bad luck last summer, getting rained out and rained on several times.

“Some of our equipment got a little wet and doesn’t play right any more,” Grosvenor said. “When you catch the right day outside, there’s nothing better. I think that’s probably our favorite setting to play in. A lot of breweries in the state have outdoor music, late afternoons and weekends.”

A few spontaneously recorded Rangers live albums might be juicier than their studio effort Phosphorescent Snack. “I think they’re different animals. We’re in the process of another studio album. It’s really exciting to be putting that new one together because we learned a lot from putting the first one together. The first one was more about putting together a definitive version that’s a little more locked down from an improve perspective. The approach we’re taking this time is a little more looser, to leave a little more running room to improvise in the studio.”

“Live albums,” he continued, “let people know what to expect when they come to our shows, loose and spontaneous. It’s going to sound like what’s on those live albums.”

“North and his Rangers started out with four band members but morphed into a six piece while playing and recording. Another founding member is drummer Dale Grant who has decades of experience with a variety of genre bands. Grant is also a music theory brain.

“He thrives on working in weird time signatures,” North said, “songs that have weird stops or rhythmic pick ups and he will add that to songs where I hadn’t put anything like that because he hears it and will be able to integrate that level of complexity that might not have been there before.”

Bassist Chip Spangler possesses an incredible ear which shows when Andrew North And The Rangers host their first Wednesday of the month open mics at the Bank Of New Hampshire in Concord.

“I’ve watched him sit in with so many players. Sometimes it’s somebody coming in with an original song and they need a bass player. His ability to play along with people when he doesn’t know the song and anticipates where it’s going and hear what needs to happen is almost unique.”

Fourth original member Rob O’Brien plays the aerophone which is also known as a wind synthesizer. It can manufacture sounds similar to other wind instruments and beyond. O’Brien uses it when he’s not playing his alto sax. “He’s got that natural stage presence where he’s willing to go all out and dive off the stage or feed off that energy.”

Two newer members, initially brought in for a 2022 big show at Concord’s Bank Of New Hampshire, are percussionist Randy Hunneyman and baritone saxophone player Jillian Rork. Rork was at a fourth of July party with Hunneyman when she came up on stage to play saxophone. Hunneyman soon brought her to band practice.

“Both Randy and Jillian, chemistry wise, once we started practicing with them, they fit in so well. To bring just anther sound and such good personalities that they became full fledged members of the band really quickly.”

Rork also became part of side project and ANATR subset Jade Trio. That side project was created a year ago during a busy six week period when only North, Rork, and Grant were available for practice. The trio started rehearsing new songs that Grosvenor had composed and had wondered what would they sound like with just the trio playing them.

“Jillian’s son, James, who was ten years old at the time, had written a poem Jillian thought would make a good song,” Grosvenor said. “We worked that up into the song “The Road” which is only a Jade Trio song. We don’t have that in the band catalog. It ended up being an incredibly cool song. I’m really proud of that one.” North, Rork and Grant documented that moment in time by setting up recording equipment in the recital hall at the Concord Music School.

“We set up a bunch of microphone and did three takes of each song and took the ones we liked best. I really loved the vibe of how that album came out,” North said.

Newmarket’s Stone Church, Keene Music Festival, and Manchester’s The Shaskeen are among the name venues ANATR have played around the Granite State. It required the band four years of hard work to achieve the kind of name recognition to earn those rooms.

“It felt like absolutely forever. It’s like a million miles into the void. It took us a solid four years before we really got to the point where those rooms were really willing to work with us on a semi-regular basis,” Grosvenor said. “It can be hard. It’s that process of playing shows wherever they’ll have you. We were playing the basement at Penuche’s in Concord before we could work with some of those higher level rooms in the state.”

At some point, a growing band like ANATR will have to land venues outside New Hampshire. “We would love to but it hasn’t made sense yet,” Norths said. “Everybody in our band has a lot of day job obligations. Some of us are parents of young kids. We have been in a mindset seeing what we can do close to home and push that hard before looking to drive two hours out to Portland, Maine.”

It is also possible at this day and age to reach outside of New Hampshire using the internet. “Making that leap from being the local band that everybody knows and loves to jumping up a notch or two to the larger New England jam band live music conversation that we’re on the periphery of, and that’s fine.” - Bill Copeland Music News